The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1887-04-07
agricultural.
THE COTTON Seed pR0RLEM

says of the cotton seed problem:
Just now whether to sell cotton
seed and allow the mill owners to
make the price, and whether to buy
cotton seed meal and ash and consent
the manufacturers shall make the
price also, are questions now agitat-
ing the farmer and planter of the
cotton States. On these questions
we have seen nothing more satisfac-
tory than that contributed to the
discussion by Prof. Stubs, of the
Louisiana Agricultural College,in an
address delivered before an agricul-
tural convention, a short time since.
Prof. Stubs has made his. mark in
previous addresses before various
conventions of the same or similar
character. If he fulflls the promise
OF the past ana present, he will soon
become leading authority on practi-
cal and scientific Southern agricuI-
ture. With the brief Introduction
that few words upon cotton seed
and cotton-seed meal would not be
inappropriate, he made substantially
the following statement: 1900
pounds of cotton seed contain 500
each Of lint and 1000 Of seed. A ton
OF seed sent to the oil works yield
eighteen TO twenty-five pounds Of
short lint, 1000 pounds bulls, which
are used as fuel under the boilers,
and which give thirty pounds of ashes
700 pounds cotton meal, and thirty
five to forty gallons Of oil From the
commercial columns of the New Or
leans dailies we find the following
tariff OF prices: Short lint cotton,
six cent per pound; ashes, SO per
ton; cotton-seed meal, S18 per ton;
oil, unrefned, thirty cents per gal
Ion. At the same time we find cot
ton-seed priced at 50 per ton, deliv-
cred in the city. Applying these
figures we have Products Of one
ton OF cotton-seed, S1968; cost of
seed, SO; apparent profits, S1068
10 mill working one hundred to
two hundred tons per day, surely
there must be handsome returns.
There were grown in the United
States last year, in round numbers,
100000 bales Of cotton of five hun
dred pounds each. This gives us
100000 tons of cotton seed. Re
serving sixth for seed, there
would be 100000 tons available for
the mills, which at 50 per ton, would
yield the handsome income of 3d.
5000. Surely, Mr. Edward Akin
son was not far from wrong when he
! made the eXtravagant assertion tina.
cotton would be grown at "a profit for
the seed alone. The seed contains
about twenty-four per cent. of oil
which has no fertilizing properties
whatever, and economy would sug-
gest, always, the extraction Of this
oil before applying this as manure
| But can we sell the seed at present
prices and buy back meal? | an.
swer, no. When you pay $50 pei
ton for meal you should get for youl
seed, delivered, at least 50 per tor
and unless this price is realized, use
them always at home as manure
| Again, whenever the seeds are sold
the meal should always be purchased
| II the seed be retained Tor manure
they are best used in a compost With
acid phosphate. Compost is the best
manure in the world, say some
There is power in the combination
strength in the mixture, ferment
in the union which multiplics roots,
enlarges foliage and increases the
! fruit. Again, its use begets spirit
of outstanding and economising the
wastes of "a farm, and develops pow
, ers OF observation in the planter.
| Numerous experiments have demon
strated cotton meal to be the
equal OF any other form of nitrogen
as a manure. Therefore in the
South it has supplanted every other
form, and yet the demand for it is
not equal to the supply, and annual
ly large quantities are sent to Eng
land and to the North, where it is
more judiciously used first as cat
tie food and then as a manure. The
South at present exports both nitro